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Snowmonster and Trailboss' Utah Powder Adventure - 'Bird/Alta/DV - 3/17-21/2012
- Thread starter snowmonster
- Start date
gmcunni
Active member
Bluebird Day at Alta: Day 4 of the Wasatch Powder Tour
Date: March 20, 2012
Resort: Alta, Utah
Conditions: Powder. 48” storm total.
Weather: Sunny skies.
Report #: 24
Alta repeat and amazing conditions, but less folks and no traffic jam. We got up there pretty early and were able to get in some great runs in new areas at Alta for me.
First couple of spins was down the High Traverse Area, hitting Racecourse, Annie’s, Rockcrusher, Racecourse Saddle, and Lower Lone Pine. The sun baked the snow later in the day, and these areas will be getting thin.
After seeing the line waiting for the Ballroom to open, we decided to head over the East Greely Area where we found snow that was fairly wet from the sun and sticky. We worked our way down Glory Gulch and back to Sugarloaf. The next run was down Keyhole Gulch to Glory Gulch which was a bit drier than up high.
Another new area for me was the Catherine’s Area, which is located on Point Supreme and requires a hike from the top of the Supreme Chair. Looking at the map, So Long looked pretty tasty, so away we went. The views were stunning to say the least and there was quite a crowd heading out into that area. We hiked about 15 minutes and then dropped into an area just beyond So Long. Nice snow. Tasty powder bumps and those crowds, for whatever reason, were further along the ridge (which involved one hell of a hike out in deep snow, or at least it appeared). After this, we decided to grab lunch and glided out on Rabbit and Home Run to Albion and then skated down along the tow, which was not running.
We rested our legs and enjoyed a nice lunch on the patio, which was clear of all the new snow, and then headed back up Collins to hit Ballroom, which was pretty well tracked out, before heading back out to High Traverse and hitting No Name to Lower Lone Pine. We were both pretty tired from multiple powder days, so we enjoyed the views before skiing back down to Collins and doing one more lazy run down Mambo to the bottom. An amazing bluebird day and great snow.
Date: March 20, 2012
Resort: Alta, Utah
Conditions: Powder. 48” storm total.
Weather: Sunny skies.
Report #: 24
Alta repeat and amazing conditions, but less folks and no traffic jam. We got up there pretty early and were able to get in some great runs in new areas at Alta for me.
First couple of spins was down the High Traverse Area, hitting Racecourse, Annie’s, Rockcrusher, Racecourse Saddle, and Lower Lone Pine. The sun baked the snow later in the day, and these areas will be getting thin.
After seeing the line waiting for the Ballroom to open, we decided to head over the East Greely Area where we found snow that was fairly wet from the sun and sticky. We worked our way down Glory Gulch and back to Sugarloaf. The next run was down Keyhole Gulch to Glory Gulch which was a bit drier than up high.
Another new area for me was the Catherine’s Area, which is located on Point Supreme and requires a hike from the top of the Supreme Chair. Looking at the map, So Long looked pretty tasty, so away we went. The views were stunning to say the least and there was quite a crowd heading out into that area. We hiked about 15 minutes and then dropped into an area just beyond So Long. Nice snow. Tasty powder bumps and those crowds, for whatever reason, were further along the ridge (which involved one hell of a hike out in deep snow, or at least it appeared). After this, we decided to grab lunch and glided out on Rabbit and Home Run to Albion and then skated down along the tow, which was not running.
We rested our legs and enjoyed a nice lunch on the patio, which was clear of all the new snow, and then headed back up Collins to hit Ballroom, which was pretty well tracked out, before heading back out to High Traverse and hitting No Name to Lower Lone Pine. We were both pretty tired from multiple powder days, so we enjoyed the views before skiing back down to Collins and doing one more lazy run down Mambo to the bottom. An amazing bluebird day and great snow.
Day 4 Photos:
High Traverse Area:
Deep snow:
Fun:
Taking it in:
Glory Gulch/East Greely:
All this great snow could have been yours!
Glory Gulch:
Getting ready to drop in:
p
Send it!
Keyhole Gulch/Yellow Trail Area:
High Traverse Area:
Deep snow:
Fun:
Taking it in:
Glory Gulch/East Greely:
All this great snow could have been yours!
Glory Gulch:
Getting ready to drop in:
p
Send it!
Keyhole Gulch/Yellow Trail Area:
Day 4 (continued):
A Supreme View:
Soooooooo Long:
Lunch Time:
Look closely for one of Alta's famous residents....
A little dance in the Ballroom....
Yum:
A Supreme View:
Soooooooo Long:
Lunch Time:
Look closely for one of Alta's famous residents....
A little dance in the Ballroom....
Yum:
rocojerry
Member
awesome shots/TR. Looks like you found winter! 
Date: March 21, 2012
Resort: Deer Valley, Utah
Conditions: Varied (spring conditions and MG)
Weather: Sunny skies.
Report #: 25
For our last day we planned an outing to Deer Valley, at Snowmonster’s suggestion. He wanted to ski the “evil triumvirate” of MRG, Alta, and Deer Valley in one season (all three do not allow snowboarders). Plus, being consistently ranked as the best if not one of the top rated ski resorts in the country made us wonder what the fuss was about.
Now we have all joked about the swanky ski areas and mocked them for catering to the elite. Years ago many folks on here regularly bashed Stratton for this, including me. But when the opportunity came to ski at Stratton in March 2006 for free I took advantage and went with an open mind and came away very surprised and in fact could admit that I liked it. The same could be said for my April 2011 visit back to Bretton Woods. So even though my knee jerk reaction at one time might have been, “oh Deer Valley is too snobby for me,” I was more curious than anything else and ready, willing, and able to visit a new place.
The drive from Salt Lake to Deer Valley is, like to LCC, very simple. We arrived in about 40 minutes at the Snow Park Lodge, which was at one time the Powder Park area. A statue of Stein Ericksen greeted us as we unloaded our skis, with ski valets ready to help if needed, and the wide open slopes of Bald Eagle Mountain. Unlike Alta or even Snowbird there was lots of prime real estate around the lodge and the clientele was overall much older and more relaxed than the powderhounds of LCC.
I checked in the Joes at the free ski check and was almost cut off by an out-of-towner who felt that he was entitled to cut the line. The Deer Valley employee, as if used to this, simply looked at me and asked if I had skis to check in, making the guy look like an idiot and making me feel welcomed. The Joes were much fatter than the usual Deer Valley ski, so the employee had to put them in separate boxes, but she was very helpful.
The lodge was immaculate. Nice post and beam, dark lighting, lots of wood. It was very reminiscent of some of Stowe’s new buildings. In fact, Deer Valley definitely has inspired the redevelopments of Stowe and Bretton Woods no doubt.
With our tickets on, we stepped into our skis and headed to the Silver Lake Express greeted by an older couple who were checking tickets. While many grumble about the high ticket prices, I can say that the money got you much better service, facilities, and food (as I will discuss below) than other places. Most of the employees were older and more seasoned folks, rather than high school kids or folks who were working part time and had little or no customer service training.
Our first stop at Silver Lake was to the map where a mountain host welcomed us and explained the layout of the resort with some good spots to ski. We headed up Sterling Express and spent the morning skiing Bald Mountain, focusing on the Sultan and Mayflower areas. We enjoyed spring conditions on Perserverance Bowl, Thunderer, Edgar’s Alley, Tycoon, Stein’s Way, Star, Narrow Gauge, and Finis. We found Mayflower Bowl to be too cooked for much skiing, so we headed back to Stein’s Way. Snowmonster ventured onto Morning Star/Fortune Teller to enjoy soft spring bumps.
As the host told us, the most awkward thing about Deer Valley is that if one starts at Snow Park and skis pretty much anywhere else, you have to either download Silver Lake Express or take a lift back UP the backside of Bald Eagle Mountain and ski down to the base area. This proved to be time consuming and is probably the biggest con for Deer Valley (considering that I don’t know of any day parking areas at either Empire Canyon Lodge or Silver Lake Lodge). And looking at the map, which resembles Killington in some ways with many different areas spread out, including the Jordanelle Area (which is a carbon copy of Lower Skyeship), one has to plan ahead and think about where they want to ski.
Anyways, we skied down Birdseye/Nabob to Silver Lake, rode Silver Link back up Bald Eagle Mountain, and skied down to the base via Solid Muldoon.
I normally don’t talk about lunch because I usually brownbag, but we planned on treating ourselves and it was worth it. While they did serve (legitimately) gourmet burgers, they also had turkey breast, beef roast, pizza (the only thing that did not look good), gourmet pasta, a full salad bar, and many other treats made in front of you by chefs. For the same price as a fastfood burger at many resorts, I got a full plate of ginger shrimp pasta which one probably would find at a nice Italian restaurant. Snowmonster did the turkey dinner, with all the fixings, and found it very tasty. While we chatted and enjoyed the nice atmosphere, staff members offered to bus our table and asked if everything was fine. By far the best food service at any ski area I have visited. The folks in the lodge were mellow and all having a good time, even at the noon hour, as opposed to chaos in other places I have been.
Back out onto the slopes we went, and I traded the Tigersharks for the Joes.
“Here are your waterskis, sir. Those skis are FAT. What do you ski with those?” I laughed and pointed to the Alta/Snowbird sticker on the skis. On the chair we got lots of looks and compliments for the fatter skis that we were sporting (“are those custom skis?” “Wow, those are a cool shape.”) Most folks we ran into were from the east or Midwestern cities on vacation as opposed to the died in the wool powderhounds in LCC who might have thought our 105 mm skis were too narrow.
We hit Quincy Express to a meandering run down Bandana to the Empire Canyon area. In minutes we were on top of Empire Mountain, staring down Solace and Conviction and salivating at the powder bumps ahead of us. I was glad to swap the skis and enjoyed the soft bumps while Snowmonster sampled a stand of largely untracked birches near Domingo. Though we stared at Daly Chutes and Daly Bowl, we saw that the snow was largely tracked out and parts of it were shining (PC is much lower than LCC) so we opted to head back down to the bottom in an effort to get to Lady Morgan, which we had found had just closed for the day (in hindsight, Lady Morgan was quite thin as we could see and staying in Empire was fine). Back up Empire we went and this time I sampled Orion down to Buckeye while Snowmonster found more trees. By the time we got to the Empire Express it was their 3pm closing time and we were chased out to Ruby Express.
As we worked our way back, we hit an unnamed run under the Ruby Express that delivered soft snow and few tracks. We traversed back to Northside Express and then did the Silver Strike Liftline before taking Banner back to the Viking Lift to get us back to Snow Park.
After taking the lift back up the backside of Bald Eagle, we found ourselves on the top of Champion and Know You Don’t, which were two runs used for the 2002 Olympic Games (the former was the mogul run and the latter was the slalom run). We sliced soft spring snow to the headwall of Know You Don’t and then hit the soft bumps on the way down to the base.
Overall the terrain, like at Bretton Woods and Stratton, was much easier than other places and well groomed and manicured. They had lots of snowmaking and all of the lifts were in tip-top shape. It was a great day for cruising and taking it easy and good after four days of skiing it hard at Alta and Snowbird.
For me though the staff really made the place what it was. We shopped in the Deer Valley Signature Store for the right T-shirt and were helped by store clerks who were middle-aged women who were pleasant and helpful. After our ski day, I had to return my T-shirt because I found a hole in it and I was expecting a short visit and hopefully a stress-free return. Instead, my daughter and I were welcomed by the clerks (“we just started our big sale. Won’t you look over there for something special?”), the return was easy, and I had a hard time leaving because each of them were very welcoming, conversational, and helpful. I spoke with the manager, who offered to push my daughter in her stroller while I shopped, and had a nice 15 minute conversation. She was genuinely interested in who I was and where we were from. The conversation ended with a warm welcome to return and an invitation to switch to Deer Valley in the future as passholders. Of course their efforts were well rewarded because I left on Saturday with not one T-shirt but a few other things that were on sale (two of which had “DEER VALLEY” on them).
So say what you want and rely on stereotypes, but if you can, you owe yourself a visit (many Utahns told me to go there at least once). I know that I will look forward to my next trip there, be it for skiing or for a summer event. All in all, a nice skiing experience with wonderful amenities and great service that sets it apart from others in the east and west.
Resort: Deer Valley, Utah
Conditions: Varied (spring conditions and MG)
Weather: Sunny skies.
Report #: 25
For our last day we planned an outing to Deer Valley, at Snowmonster’s suggestion. He wanted to ski the “evil triumvirate” of MRG, Alta, and Deer Valley in one season (all three do not allow snowboarders). Plus, being consistently ranked as the best if not one of the top rated ski resorts in the country made us wonder what the fuss was about.
Now we have all joked about the swanky ski areas and mocked them for catering to the elite. Years ago many folks on here regularly bashed Stratton for this, including me. But when the opportunity came to ski at Stratton in March 2006 for free I took advantage and went with an open mind and came away very surprised and in fact could admit that I liked it. The same could be said for my April 2011 visit back to Bretton Woods. So even though my knee jerk reaction at one time might have been, “oh Deer Valley is too snobby for me,” I was more curious than anything else and ready, willing, and able to visit a new place.
The drive from Salt Lake to Deer Valley is, like to LCC, very simple. We arrived in about 40 minutes at the Snow Park Lodge, which was at one time the Powder Park area. A statue of Stein Ericksen greeted us as we unloaded our skis, with ski valets ready to help if needed, and the wide open slopes of Bald Eagle Mountain. Unlike Alta or even Snowbird there was lots of prime real estate around the lodge and the clientele was overall much older and more relaxed than the powderhounds of LCC.
I checked in the Joes at the free ski check and was almost cut off by an out-of-towner who felt that he was entitled to cut the line. The Deer Valley employee, as if used to this, simply looked at me and asked if I had skis to check in, making the guy look like an idiot and making me feel welcomed. The Joes were much fatter than the usual Deer Valley ski, so the employee had to put them in separate boxes, but she was very helpful.
The lodge was immaculate. Nice post and beam, dark lighting, lots of wood. It was very reminiscent of some of Stowe’s new buildings. In fact, Deer Valley definitely has inspired the redevelopments of Stowe and Bretton Woods no doubt.
With our tickets on, we stepped into our skis and headed to the Silver Lake Express greeted by an older couple who were checking tickets. While many grumble about the high ticket prices, I can say that the money got you much better service, facilities, and food (as I will discuss below) than other places. Most of the employees were older and more seasoned folks, rather than high school kids or folks who were working part time and had little or no customer service training.
Our first stop at Silver Lake was to the map where a mountain host welcomed us and explained the layout of the resort with some good spots to ski. We headed up Sterling Express and spent the morning skiing Bald Mountain, focusing on the Sultan and Mayflower areas. We enjoyed spring conditions on Perserverance Bowl, Thunderer, Edgar’s Alley, Tycoon, Stein’s Way, Star, Narrow Gauge, and Finis. We found Mayflower Bowl to be too cooked for much skiing, so we headed back to Stein’s Way. Snowmonster ventured onto Morning Star/Fortune Teller to enjoy soft spring bumps.
As the host told us, the most awkward thing about Deer Valley is that if one starts at Snow Park and skis pretty much anywhere else, you have to either download Silver Lake Express or take a lift back UP the backside of Bald Eagle Mountain and ski down to the base area. This proved to be time consuming and is probably the biggest con for Deer Valley (considering that I don’t know of any day parking areas at either Empire Canyon Lodge or Silver Lake Lodge). And looking at the map, which resembles Killington in some ways with many different areas spread out, including the Jordanelle Area (which is a carbon copy of Lower Skyeship), one has to plan ahead and think about where they want to ski.
Anyways, we skied down Birdseye/Nabob to Silver Lake, rode Silver Link back up Bald Eagle Mountain, and skied down to the base via Solid Muldoon.
I normally don’t talk about lunch because I usually brownbag, but we planned on treating ourselves and it was worth it. While they did serve (legitimately) gourmet burgers, they also had turkey breast, beef roast, pizza (the only thing that did not look good), gourmet pasta, a full salad bar, and many other treats made in front of you by chefs. For the same price as a fastfood burger at many resorts, I got a full plate of ginger shrimp pasta which one probably would find at a nice Italian restaurant. Snowmonster did the turkey dinner, with all the fixings, and found it very tasty. While we chatted and enjoyed the nice atmosphere, staff members offered to bus our table and asked if everything was fine. By far the best food service at any ski area I have visited. The folks in the lodge were mellow and all having a good time, even at the noon hour, as opposed to chaos in other places I have been.
Back out onto the slopes we went, and I traded the Tigersharks for the Joes.
“Here are your waterskis, sir. Those skis are FAT. What do you ski with those?” I laughed and pointed to the Alta/Snowbird sticker on the skis. On the chair we got lots of looks and compliments for the fatter skis that we were sporting (“are those custom skis?” “Wow, those are a cool shape.”) Most folks we ran into were from the east or Midwestern cities on vacation as opposed to the died in the wool powderhounds in LCC who might have thought our 105 mm skis were too narrow.
We hit Quincy Express to a meandering run down Bandana to the Empire Canyon area. In minutes we were on top of Empire Mountain, staring down Solace and Conviction and salivating at the powder bumps ahead of us. I was glad to swap the skis and enjoyed the soft bumps while Snowmonster sampled a stand of largely untracked birches near Domingo. Though we stared at Daly Chutes and Daly Bowl, we saw that the snow was largely tracked out and parts of it were shining (PC is much lower than LCC) so we opted to head back down to the bottom in an effort to get to Lady Morgan, which we had found had just closed for the day (in hindsight, Lady Morgan was quite thin as we could see and staying in Empire was fine). Back up Empire we went and this time I sampled Orion down to Buckeye while Snowmonster found more trees. By the time we got to the Empire Express it was their 3pm closing time and we were chased out to Ruby Express.
As we worked our way back, we hit an unnamed run under the Ruby Express that delivered soft snow and few tracks. We traversed back to Northside Express and then did the Silver Strike Liftline before taking Banner back to the Viking Lift to get us back to Snow Park.
After taking the lift back up the backside of Bald Eagle, we found ourselves on the top of Champion and Know You Don’t, which were two runs used for the 2002 Olympic Games (the former was the mogul run and the latter was the slalom run). We sliced soft spring snow to the headwall of Know You Don’t and then hit the soft bumps on the way down to the base.
Overall the terrain, like at Bretton Woods and Stratton, was much easier than other places and well groomed and manicured. They had lots of snowmaking and all of the lifts were in tip-top shape. It was a great day for cruising and taking it easy and good after four days of skiing it hard at Alta and Snowbird.
For me though the staff really made the place what it was. We shopped in the Deer Valley Signature Store for the right T-shirt and were helped by store clerks who were middle-aged women who were pleasant and helpful. After our ski day, I had to return my T-shirt because I found a hole in it and I was expecting a short visit and hopefully a stress-free return. Instead, my daughter and I were welcomed by the clerks (“we just started our big sale. Won’t you look over there for something special?”), the return was easy, and I had a hard time leaving because each of them were very welcoming, conversational, and helpful. I spoke with the manager, who offered to push my daughter in her stroller while I shopped, and had a nice 15 minute conversation. She was genuinely interested in who I was and where we were from. The conversation ended with a warm welcome to return and an invitation to switch to Deer Valley in the future as passholders. Of course their efforts were well rewarded because I left on Saturday with not one T-shirt but a few other things that were on sale (two of which had “DEER VALLEY” on them).
So say what you want and rely on stereotypes, but if you can, you owe yourself a visit (many Utahns told me to go there at least once). I know that I will look forward to my next trip there, be it for skiing or for a summer event. All in all, a nice skiing experience with wonderful amenities and great service that sets it apart from others in the east and west.
Last edited:
snowmonster
New member
^ You forgot about the woman dressed in leopard tights.=) By the way, I FedExed my skis from DV. Just got them at the office this afternoon. Definitely hitting Deer Valley again. Need to hit the Lady Morgan Chair, the Daly Bowl and X-Files. Great reports, man! Thanks for showing me around Utah. Slaying Mormon Pow!
jrmagic
New member
Wow awesome TR and pics!! Glad you guys enjoyed.
And pictures from Deer Valley:
Snow Park Base:
The ride to Silver Lake:
Our orientation:
Tycoon:
Time for some more skiing:
Perserverance Bowl:
Mayflower Bowl:
Narrow Gauge and Mayflower Quad:
Stein's Way:
Snow Park Base:
The ride to Silver Lake:
Our orientation:
Tycoon:
Time for some more skiing:
Perserverance Bowl:
Mayflower Bowl:
Narrow Gauge and Mayflower Quad:
Stein's Way:
hammer
Active member
Thanks for the TRs and pictures. Have to get back to DV again, hopefully not during a vacation week. Wasn't excessively crowded but they did sell to capacity.
More Deer Valley:
Taking a break:
Some history about the Mayflower Area:
Solid Muldoon and the St. Regis Hotel in the background:
Gourmet Ski Lodge Food:
Time to scare some kids with the Joes:
"Those are some cool skis..."
Ye Olde Mining Building (aka budget accommodations):
Empire Canyon Lodge:
Daly Chutes:
Solace and Conviction:
A wild Snowmonster lurking in the woods.....
And only a few hundred feet away is PCMR:
Heading down:
Daly Bowl and Chutes:
Ripping it up:
Taking a break:
Some history about the Mayflower Area:
Solid Muldoon and the St. Regis Hotel in the background:
Gourmet Ski Lodge Food:
Time to scare some kids with the Joes:
"Those are some cool skis..."
Ye Olde Mining Building (aka budget accommodations):
Empire Canyon Lodge:
Daly Chutes:
Solace and Conviction:
A wild Snowmonster lurking in the woods.....
And only a few hundred feet away is PCMR:
Heading down:
Daly Bowl and Chutes:
Ripping it up:
More DV:
More history:
Looking up Empire Canyon:
Slaying the liftline of Ruby Express:
Look closely and count how many lifts end here...the correct number is four!
"Should we hit it?"
"Hell yeah!"
Which way?
Know you don't!
Snow Park:
Big freestyle jumps:
Winner!
More history:
Stein and me:
More history:
Looking up Empire Canyon:
Slaying the liftline of Ruby Express:
Look closely and count how many lifts end here...the correct number is four!
"Should we hit it?"
"Hell yeah!"
Which way?
Know you don't!
Snow Park:
Big freestyle jumps:
Winner!
More history:
Stein and me:
Sad to say I did not win the car....
Looks awesome!
Tooth
New member
Best TR ever. I am so jealous. Looks insane. Do you tour snowboarders? Great photos.
Thanks. I can certainly offer advice for Snowbird, which is filling in nicely now.
snowmonster
New member
These trip reports and photos make me want to return to SLC next month.
You're more than welcome. Snowbird is going strong right through April and Alta just announced that they are extending their season as well.
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